The Star Wars: The Old Republic Website solicits screenshots showing off your celebratory moments leading up to the first anniversary of the Star Wars MMORPG on December 20th. The site also offers details on a new version 1.6 "Ancient Hypergate" updated that's now live in the game. Word is: "Game Update 1.6 will introduce new PvP mechanics in the new Warzone: Ancient Hypergate, which locks Republic and Imperial force in an epic conflict to unleash the power of an ancient Gere technology. Also, see exciting gameplay of new Level 50 Heroic Space Missions. After viewing the video, be sure to log-in to The Old Republic™ and experience the new content first hand!"

Thanks for the info folks, decided to take a look - which left my poor modem crying like it's Steam sale time.

No sign of that "Origin" thing, so I'm still safe on that front - although I can't remember why I'm supposed to be avoiding it.

All the cinematics and the voice acting, it's a bit early but so far it didn't seem bad at all. If it continues through the whole game, and especially if there's unique stuff for each possible character, I can see how they might've spent all that money.

Only had a couple hours for it, so can't say anything about the story. But wow, you have to pay real money to run? Did I read that correctly? That's going to get old fast. And there's these funky $-like symbols strewn all over various interface bits. Presumably that's stuff you could do, if only you weren't a miserable f2p pleb.

Will give it some more time, but it hasn't grabbed me the way those old Kotor games did. Maybe those started slow as well, and I'm only remembering the good parts?

LgFriess wrote on Dec 12, 2012, 15:15:The problem I found was, despite the story, the game play is still the old school MMO stuff. By that I mean packs of mobs just standing there waiting to die, dailies (the most horrible video game idea ever...EVER), grind, 95% repeated missions with different characters.

I played for the first 6 months, found a good guild, had some fun times, but it is what it is... WoW in space but not as good.

I think you must have burnt out playing WoW. See, I never played WoW and I'm still having a ton of fun in SWTOR a year later. It helps that I play a reasonable number of hours a week and don't burn through all 8 class stories in two months, I suppose.

I think that you know what you find boring, but did you consider the alternatives? I've played text MUDs that had zones with hunting packs of coordinating monsters. It was NOT FUN. There isn't time to plan, there isn't time to recover between fights and you can get curb stomped by multiple roaming groups at once. It may be more realistic but in order to win you need to have group coordination on the level of a military unit or a SWAT team, with a command hierarchy, formations and reserve units. Most gamers just don't have the time to learn how to do that. The gaming guilds that are that good would love it, I am sure, but the number of subscribers to a game like that would be low. Very low.

And it is a sad fact of life that creating content is always slower than consuming it, which means gamers will always be hitting the end of the available quests/missions, leaving nothing to do but repeat them over and over or play PvP which at least provides a new challenge each time.

I always find it interesting that people call Everquest and WoW "old school" and believe their game play is the original. Most people don't realize that the older text-based MUD games have tried most everything, long before WoW or EQ were around. There were games with evolving worlds; randomized world layouts; killer enemy squad AI that would hunt you down across the entire world map, cut off your retreat and even back off and heal themselves when losing; monsters that would regularly attack the town guards and sometimes sack the place, killing all the newbies as they logged in. There were games with fully unrestricted PvP where groups of players would sack the town and kill all the newbies logging in, or force them to pay to drink at the town fountain or die, or epic level mages would charm all the players in town and order them to jump into the pit.

Most of those things didn't get into the big games because THEY'RE NOT THAT FUN. Which is why "old school" MMO stuff that WoW uses is everywhere: because the formula works, for the most part.

And all those things you described happened all in a text-based format. Why did you leave the MUDs then, if they were still superior to graphical stuff?

I think also that much of the stuff you describe was embellished quite a bit. The "AI" you describe is pretty easy to simulate or make you think it's "intelligent" when you're constantly typing and feeding the game the location where you'll be or where you want to go.

LgFriess wrote on Dec 12, 2012, 15:15:The problem I found was, despite the story, the game play is still the old school MMO stuff. By that I mean packs of mobs just standing there waiting to die, dailies (the most horrible video game idea ever...EVER), grind, 95% repeated missions with different characters.

I played for the first 6 months, found a good guild, had some fun times, but it is what it is... WoW in space but not as good.

I think you must have burnt out playing WoW. See, I never played WoW and I'm still having a ton of fun in SWTOR a year later. It helps that I play a reasonable number of hours a week and don't burn through all 8 class stories in two months, I suppose.

I think that you know what you find boring, but did you consider the alternatives? I've played text MUDs that had zones with hunting packs of coordinating monsters. It was NOT FUN. There isn't time to plan, there isn't time to recover between fights and you can get curb stomped by multiple roaming groups at once. It may be more realistic but in order to win you need to have group coordination on the level of a military unit or a SWAT team, with a command hierarchy, formations and reserve units. Most gamers just don't have the time to learn how to do that. The gaming guilds that are that good would love it, I am sure, but the number of subscribers to a game like that would be low. Very low.

And it is a sad fact of life that creating content is always slower than consuming it, which means gamers will always be hitting the end of the available quests/missions, leaving nothing to do but repeat them over and over or play PvP which at least provides a new challenge each time.

I always find it interesting that people call Everquest and WoW "old school" and believe their game play is the original. Most people don't realize that the older text-based MUD games have tried most everything, long before WoW or EQ were around. There were games with evolving worlds; randomized world layouts; killer enemy squad AI that would hunt you down across the entire world map, cut off your retreat and even back off and heal themselves when losing; monsters that would regularly attack the town guards and sometimes sack the place, killing all the newbies as they logged in. There were games with fully unrestricted PvP where groups of players would sack the town and kill all the newbies logging in, or force them to pay to drink at the town fountain or die, or epic level mages would charm all the players in town and order them to jump into the pit.

Most of those things didn't get into the big games because THEY'RE NOT THAT FUN. Which is why "old school" MMO stuff that WoW uses is everywhere: because the formula works, for the most part.

The problem I found was, despite the story, the game play is still the old school MMO stuff. By that I mean packs of mobs just standing there waiting to die, dailies (the most horrible video game idea ever...EVER), grind, 95% repeated missions with different characters.

I played for the first 6 months, found a good guild, had some fun times, but it is what it is... WoW in space but not as good.

KOTOR3 would have had much more interesting game play I would imagine.

You forgot to mention that if you aren't subbed, ie. F2P, you can only do 3 missions (including failures to complete) per fucking week...

Honestly, I reckon serial pedophiles have more decency than EA/Bioware at this point. This game didn't have a hell of a lot of credibility to being with, but it's really plunged to the bottom of the barrel...

I tried one of the heroics today with my all purple ship (no idea what level it is, but it was max level of everything a month after go live) and didn't last more than a minute. Most of the objective ships I couldn't even scratch (literally half of 150 odd missiles blown to shoot down 6 bombers). It's the same old shit with higher level requirements.

Now I'm curious to know how much they want for those packs of level 7 ship items. Not interested in paying them for that stuff but considering how much time they expect you to put into running those missions to get that gear I wonder what they're hoping you'll do instead...

Logging in...

Edit: It's about $10 to get all the items you need. I think the offense and defense packs should make it possible to do the missions with ease. I was able to purchase a beam generator which upped my damage by 100 per shot and that seemed to make it possible to shoot and kill a few things. Playing on a multi monitor setup sucks though because one side of the screen has the cursor fly off and you stop moving.

the mission I tried was the asteroid / mine one which is really annoying as hell currently. I'll try some others later. Haven't run into the limit you mentioned, I've done the mission 2x and failed both times at almost hte same spot :(.

fiftykyu wrote on Dec 12, 2012, 10:11:So, if a person loved Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2 (especially with that restored something or other mod) would it be possible to squint and pretend it's Kotor 3? Is there a game's worth of story in there?

If you're a fan of KOTOR 1 and 2 you owe it to yourself to play one Empire, and one Republic character. You get diminishing returns in terms of story beyond that point.

Every time you preorder a game, you become part of the problem. Don't be part of the problem.

fiftykyu wrote on Dec 12, 2012, 10:11:So, if a person loved Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2 (especially with that restored something or other mod) would it be possible to squint and pretend it's Kotor 3? Is there a game's worth of story in there?

Apparently the Jedi Knight campaign sort of acts as the unofficial Kotor 3, from what I've read. There's even some cameos from old NPCs.

NKD wrote on Dec 11, 2012, 23:25:You know after I got my 3 months out of this game and quit, I didn't really care that the game ended up being lame. But looking back, something bugs me about how the game ended up. Can you even do a compelling MMO experience where people can make fond memories anymore, or is that something those of us who got in at the beginning of the genre will experience?

I've had a lot of fun in GW2. I'm not sure that I'd call them like treasured memories or anything, but I still laugh when I think back of some of the weird shit that happened, and some of the massive combats I've been in.

And I'm really NOT an MMO guy. So I think it's possible; at least to the extent that it's possible to get some memories out of a single player game as well.

So, if a person loved Knights of the Old Republic 1 & 2 (especially with that restored something or other mod) would it be possible to squint and pretend it's Kotor 3? Is there a game's worth of story in there? Or is it just the stereotypical free-to-play finely calculated annoyances?

Didn't try the old Star Wars game (Galaxies?), but I did have fun with Star Trek Online for a while (if anyone's interested, spaceship fighting was actually pretty good, but anything on land was dire.) Figure once you're just idling and playing the market it's time to quit. But the price was right.

Tumbler wrote on Dec 12, 2012, 00:28:Hmm, I'll be interested to see the heroic space missions.

Your interest will fade very quickly once you realize that you only have two options to beat these missions:

1) Grind the previously existing daily space missions like a madman for daily space commendations to afford the grade 7 ship parts that are absolutely necessary to beat these new HEROIC missions. By "grind" we are talking an insane time investment of several months grinding these missions *daily* straight in a row until you will finally be able to equip your ship with grade 7 stuff in every slot.

2) The BioWare/EA preferred solution naturally = Take a shortcut by using the cartel market to buy the grade 7 ship parts packs with $$$. There are three packs (tactical/defensive/offensive) that will allow you to buy all of the grade 7 parts with a single click instead of grinding space dailies for months. Isn't that great?

If you'd ask me it's not great but the lamest shit ever... or close.

You forgot to mention that if you aren't subbed, ie. F2P, you can only do 3 missions (including failures to complete) per fucking week...

Honestly, I reckon serial pedophiles have more decency than EA/Bioware at this point. This game didn't have a hell of a lot of credibility to being with, but it's really plunged to the bottom of the barrel...

I tried one of the heroics today with my all purple ship (no idea what level it is, but it was max level of everything a month after go live) and didn't last more than a minute. Most of the objective ships I couldn't even scratch (literally half of 150 odd missiles blown to shoot down 6 bombers). It's the same old shit with higher level requirements.

OldTimber wrote on Dec 12, 2012, 02:42:Oh well going to go get some laughs reading the forums as people justify spending more and more money in the market for bits that will be gone when the servers are pulled.

For the first time in a week I figured I'd log in to check the new items out and to clear things up before I finally cancel this steaming pile. I give any MMO I start in a year usually if possible and can't wait to dump this one. Or actually no think I'll wait, hit up the launch day anniversary pop the silly founder title up finally and laugh my ass off on both fleets.

Their new content this time around is just more and more in the cartel market to buy with last months initial packs going for dirt cheap credit wise on the GTN. Everything else new,the lifeday items,are just slapped into the market now instead of a quest chain/event type as they did with the scavenger hunt a few months back. Oh look all the fugly recolored armor is still sold as sets instead of pieces which if they were smart enough would get them more revenue. Hey wow "heroic" space missions, don't even recall the last time I wasted a few minutes doing the regular ones as they became boring after the 10th time through on multiple toons.

Oh well going to go get some laughs reading the forums as people justify spending more and more money in the market for bits that will be gone when the servers are pulled.

Tumbler wrote on Dec 12, 2012, 00:28:Hmm, I'll be interested to see the heroic space missions.

Your interest will fade very quickly once you realize that you only have two options to beat these missions:

1) Grind the previously existing daily space missions like a madman for daily space commendations to afford the grade 7 ship parts that are absolutely necessary to beat these new HEROIC missions. By "grind" we are talking an insane time investment of several months grinding these missions *daily* straight in a row until you will finally be able to equip your ship with grade 7 stuff in every slot.

2) The BioWare/EA preferred solution naturally = Take a shortcut by using the cartel market to buy the grade 7 ship parts packs with $$$. There are three packs (tactical/defensive/offensive) that will allow you to buy all of the grade 7 parts with a single click instead of grinding space dailies for months. Isn't that great?

I felt truly sad when I finally logged out forever from SWG, but mostly because of the community of people I was leaving and the sandbox we got to play in. TOR was "Meh, bored now" and the entire guild fell apart in about 3 days...

Hmm, I'll be interested to see the heroic space missions. That ship explosion is something I felt they should have had in those mission all along. The capital ships had all sorts of points to take out but in the end nothing happened.

I'm hoping that it will be possible to blow up larger ships instead of just turning into flaming wrecks.